Reprinted, with
permission of the publisher, from QUESTION YOUR WAY TO SALES SUCCESS © 2008 by Dave Kahle. Published by Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ. 800-227-3371. All rights reserved
For a sales professional, there are two basic sets of questions with which a dedicated salesperson should gain competence: Questions to ask prospects and
customers; and questions to ask yourself.
Questions we ask ourselves are just as important, if not more so, than those we ask our prospects and customers. The reason goes back to the ultimate power of a question — it directs our thinking. Just as a good question directs the
customer’s thinking, so, too, does a good question direct our own thinking. And thinking well is the ultimate success skill for a professional salesperson.
Some years ago, I was interviewing a group of salespeople for a consulting project in which I was engaged. One of the salespeople,
upon reflection, said, “I’ve come to realize that sales is really a thinking person’s game.”
I couldn’t agree more. Ultimately, the way you bring greater results into your organization, make an outstanding career for yourself, and provide more abundantly for your family is by outthinking your
peers and your competitors. Thinking – good thinking done with discipline and methodology – is the ultimate competitive skill.
Yet, few salespeople, and few people in general, regularly engage in good thinking. As the philosopher, Bertrand Russell said, “Most people would rather die
than think. In fact, they do.”
This chapter is not designed to be the final word on how salespeople could think more effectively (that’s the next book!). However, there are some easily applied rules, processes and practices that will enable you to think better and
dramatically impact your performance.
Let’s start with a simple definition of good thinking for a salesperson: Good thinking is asking yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times, and writing down the answers.
It sounds so simple, and it is. The power, like so much else in the world of the salesperson, is in excellent and disciplined execution. The rest of this chapter is going to discuss what it means to “ask yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times” but at this point I want to make the case for “writing
down the answers.”
Writing down, either on a computer or handwriting on a pad of paper, is one of the disciplines of good thinking. The very act of writing focuses you on the exact words which formulate your answers. While you can be vague and indistinct as long as the answer is
just something you maintain in your mind, when you force yourself to write the answers down you must select the exact words that go on paper. Thus, writing is a discipline that forces you to think precisely – one of the tenants of good thinking.
Secondly, putting it in print is an act of
commitment. Once you’ve written the answer, it is there for you to review forever. Not only does it serve as a commitment – after all, you wrote it – but also as a reminder that you have already gone down this path before and come up with an answer. When you confront the question that prompted that answer again, you’ll save time by referring to your previous work.
So, if you are going to think well, you’ll write the answers to your questions down on paper.
What then, are some of the “right questions” to ask yourself? I’ve organized them into two major categories: Personal
Effectiveness Questions, and Personal Improvement Questions.
